


Turning Back The Pages

by Killedbycroc



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-18
Updated: 2012-12-18
Packaged: 2017-11-21 12:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/597587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Killedbycroc/pseuds/Killedbycroc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Like every other day, I moved the box back, picked up the book again, and headed out to the living room where I proceeded to curl up on the couch and turn to the first page, ready to enter a whole different world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turning Back The Pages

  Like every other day, I dug through one of the numerous boxes in my room, trying to find something that I hadn’t seen or explored before – just the something caught my eye a few moments later. Like every other day, I briefly glanced at the cover, front and back, though it was unnecessary as my mind was already set on it. Like every other day, I moved the box back, picked up the book again, and headed out to the living room where I proceeded to curl up on the couch and turn to the first page, ready to enter a whole different world.

  To say that books were my obsession would have been an understatement – it consumed my life to such a degree that there was never a time when I wasn’t thinking about a character from a story I’d read five years ago, or if a particular sentence held a different meaning from what I’d first interpreted it as. My fascination with books was so extreme that I had held the same low-paying job at a small, but very well-stocked, bookstore for the past eight years just so I could get discounts on books. I was never sure what started my interest with them, if it was the stories themselves or what they represented, but all I knew was that I couldn’t get enough of them.

  I had gotten about halfway through the book, where the two main characters had just met each other for the first time, when the door swung open in an overly-dramatic fashion to reveal Flynn, my boyfriend of about a year – however, I was too much engrossed in my book to give him much more acknowledgement than a simple ‘hey’. Slumping down next to me on the couch, he turned the television on, providing me with the unwanted background noise that I had tried to avoid; nevertheless, I continued to read my book as if nothing had happened.

  A couple of chapters later, Flynn swung his arm around me, only half-realising that he was drawing me towards him until my head landed on his shoulder. I leant against him, still hopelessly entrapped within the world the book had provided for me. “Hey,” Flynn whispered in my ear, though the state I was in it felt more like an air-horn had been let off, “why don’t you put that thing down for a bit, give us a bit of time together, you know?”

  “In a bit,” I murmured subconsciously back. “I’m just in the middle of this chapter.”

  I could tell that it was clearly not the answer he was looking for, but he did a good job of hiding his annoyance nonetheless. “Sure, I’ll just sit here until you’re ready then.” Flynn turned his attention back towards the television, sinking further back into the couch, which made it uncomfortable for me to lean on his shoulder anymore.

  Once again I let myself become totally submerged into the book, not even noticing that I kept passing through chapter after chapter while Flynn’s expression slowly became sourer with each new page being turned, though he kept his lips firmly shut about the subject. A few minutes later, however, I assumed he gave up waiting as he changed the channel – and also turned the volume up as well. I tried to ignore it at first, figuring that a little noise never hurt anybody, but it slowly destroyed my concentration, and the fantasy world I had created for myself slowly ebbed away out of existence. “Could you turn the TV down a little please?”

  His normal reaction when I asked him this was to pick up the remote and hand it in my direction without making direct eye contact with me, but this time, this time Flynn began to lose it. “So you’re allowed to do what the fuck you want to in the apartment, but if _I_ dare to relax a little bit, you go and make me feel all guilty about it, like it’s all my fault. Well guess what? I’m sick of it.” As he stood up, he threw the remote at me, not caring where it landed.

  “Wait,” I went to follow him, “it’s just that I couldn’t concentrate on my book…”

  “Of course, of course _that’s_ what it was,” he spat out as his eyes burned into mine, “forget trying to concentrate on _us_ or anything, as long as you’re fucking happy with your fucking books then everything’s all right, isn’t it?” I went to speak again, but Flynn cut me off before I got the chance. “No, I actually don’t care what you’re going to say, because I know it’s going to be something about _the fucking books_.” He paused, waiting to see if I would deny it, but the only answer he received was silence. “That’s what I thought.”

  “…It’s not my fault I like reading so much.”

  His eyes widened in disbelief, trying to figure out what his next move should be. “Oh, so none of this is your fault, then? It’s not your fault that you spend half the day _everyday_ with your head stuck within one of those things? It’s not your fault that because you do that, the only time we seem to spend together is when you’re reading, and even then you don’t want me there? It’s not your fault that even though we’ve been together for a _year_ , we haven’t even slept together because you’re so fucking busy reading all the time? You know what, you’re right, it isn’t your fault – it’s all those stupid books’ fault.” With a crazed smile carved into his face, Flynn strode towards the bedroom – I quickly followed behind him, but not quickly enough as he began to pick up one of the boxes.

  “Wh-what are you doing?” Nothing I said got through to him, however, as he opened the box and started to empty it, throwing books all across the room, tearing apart any of them that got in his way. “Stop, I haven’t read those yet!” Again, he ignored me, his rage taking over. “Flynn, please!” I reached across, trying to get the books he was holding out of his hands – but as he turned around to hurl them into the corner, Flynn clipped the side of my face unknowingly, breaking the skin before blood began to seep out.

  As soon as he saw what he’d caused, Flynn froze in place, books still raised in the air waiting to be thrown. “Shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t think…” I never got to hear the end of his sentence, though, as I ran into the bathroom, locking the door firmly behind me. “Please, I’m sorry, you know I wouldn’t do that to you on purpose!”

  He kept pleading and apologising, but I soon blocked it out, the only audible thing being the screaming thoughts in my mind. “I thought I’d gotten away,” I whispered to myself over and over again, making sure that there was no way he could get in to my cold, dark fortress.

  Suddenly, the stories didn’t feel so real anymore.


End file.
